The Daily Telegraph

No easy solution to the badger culling debate

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sir – I was a field manager during the Randomised Badger Culling Trial, which took place between 1998 and 2005, when 11,000 badgers in selected areas were cage-trapped and killed. About 86 per cent of those culled were found to be healthy and “clean” of bovine tuberculos­is at a post mortem examinatio­n. That figure is likely to be higher in more recently culled areas.

That said, Jeremy Clarkson (Features, February 26) is right; badger numbers have increased hugely since then and infected animals need to be removed from the countrysid­e. However, PCR technology could be used to test live badgers for TB before culling takes place. That should have happened in 2011 when I met Jim Paice, then minister for food, farming and fisheries, to discuss controlled and directed culling. Sadly, the National Farmers’ Union declined to participat­e and the plan was dropped.

Alternativ­ely, cattle could be vaccinated against the disease – but herein lies a dilemma. Should this occur, badger numbers would rocket to the detriment of hedgehogs, bees nests, ground nesting birds and many other species. Badgers dominate the food chain and can ruin arable crops if left uncontroll­ed. But it will take a very brave minister to authorise indiscrimi­nate culling should the current policy halt.

I have witnessed first-hand the impact that bovine TB has on the farming community. The loss of cattle, and income, and the emotional impact, is beyond words. This will always be a hugely divisive subject.

Paul Caruana

Truro, Cornwall

sir – Jeremy Clarkson is right when he says that badgers are like teenagers: “They lie in bed all day, get up at night, transmit diseases, knock walls over, and then when the sun comes up they go back to bed again.”

My lawn was constantly being dug up before they were regularly culled. Since then, I have had no trouble at all.

Alan Webb

Stratton-on-the-fosse, Somerset

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